Possible Future Factions

Wanderer

So in an effort to expand and suggest what I feel would make great additions to the game. I feel there should be different factions, even in the Navy on ships we run into the same crime you would find in any community, such as drug usage, prostitution, gambling, ETC. I feel this would have to be the same on the Ark, which is why we have these raiders and outcasts. Considering the generic skins, that can be expanded more on later. Mentioning this, if the Ark could be built by a corporation or government, then what to say a rogue state couldn't build one neither. The potential to tap into virgin planets for corporate greed or expanding military installations to fight other forms of government. I will list some of my ideas here, as I did post some screenshots in a previous thread. One user mentioned criminal elements within the Ark. We could refer to these individuals as insurgents, who either don't agree with the ideals of the Ark, or completely want to commit resources into a hostile takeover.

Apexi Industries - Expanded on the science camp, this corporation is a science driven company looking to gain technology found from alien worlds with no moral compass. Their entire philosophy is profit driven with no compassion for humans or creatures and controls trade throughout the universe. Any merchant has to purchase rights through them to do business, otherwise they resort to extortion and murder to those that refuse to purchase said rights.

Mirage - A mercenary organization hired to perform security details and resources extend to a fully armed army with superior training to match any country or planetary defense force. Famous for Operation Seism where they took over the planet Viyria forming the first planet controlled by a military force with no government. "Up close it's the dull hum of heavy cruisers and destroyers which overpowers all other sounds. The sky filled with dropships of man and machine can be heard only faintly and the complaints of the soldiers are all but drowned out completely.
Nobody speaks a word to each other, whether it's because of fear, focus or something else is uncertain, but there's too much noise to talk anyway. The entire army is as one. A single collective mind with a single goal ahead of them: Annihilate the planetary army and overturn the current government."

The Caelestis Dominion - A completely separate government who follows closely to totalitarian ideals. A propaganda war machine that controls multiple planets and those that don't follow their ideas are sentenced to forced rehabilitation or charged with treason. A government stained with multiple genocides, whos only mission is to control the entire universe under their one leader Lucas Drach.

Wanderer

I have always supported the idea of the existence of a criminal underground inside the Ark. This will help expand the world not only in breadth, but in depth too. And... I just want to have a personal slave!

Inquisitive

Faction and Reputation would be measured like the XP bars in the character progression system and bring with their advancement the opportunities and drawbacks expected. Factions add a dimension to the game supporting replay-ability through alliances and conflict with others opening up other events like daily, weekly monthly challenges/objectives and so on.

Reputation could affect whether a faction accepts you as well as how you are perceived by the general inhabitants of the Ark and Avalon both. Looting the dead, in the doctors office for trinkets like bracelets, would get you negative rep lulling you to a darker side of the populace while making you more attractive to factions akin to Raiders for instance.

These profiling systems are as old as documented time and would bring an atmosphere of realism to PG furthering the title's legitimacy and brand. Definitely feel what Deimos is saying here and assume, based on the current direction of PG, that this has already been considered logically; I personally endorse Faction and Reputation, especially if it's managed like the rest of the character development system already in place. I am a fanboy of the XP management system and its depth in this game and see great opportunity in said system for future growth. AWESOME.

Inquisitive

Well, played many games that utilize factions; never played Minecraft though so can't remark on the "Factions" in that title. Based on what Minecraft appeared to me, watching relatives play the game, factions appear to be misplaced in that title anyway. Factions are merely expressing one's allegiance with a specific group in one form or another; factions already exist in the form of Raiders, defectors; etc. and persist in the real world as well.

Independent player characters could be their own faction representative of themselves exclusively and not bound in any way to any other group or governance; usually referred to as rebels or freelance mercenaries individuals should still be able to play the game without affiliation -merely self servitude. The independent will bring life to the game in a unique manner just as much as any adequately designed and managed faction.

Conclusively, I think that factions should exist, but it not be mandatory to be affiliated with one at any level.

Raider

So in an effort to expand and suggest what I feel would make great additions to the game. I feel there should be different factions, even in the Navy on ships we run into the same crime you would find in any community, such as drug usage, prostitution, gambling, ETC. I feel this would have to be the same on the Ark, which is why we have these raiders and outcasts. Considering the generic skins, that can be expanded more on later. Mentioning this, if the Ark could be built by a corporation or government, then what to say a rogue state couldn't build one neither. The potential to tap into virgin planets for corporate greed or expanding military installations to fight other forms of government. I will list some of my ideas here, as I did post some screenshots in a previous thread. One user mentioned criminal elements within the Ark. We could refer to these individuals as insurgents, who either don't agree with the ideals of the Ark, or completely want to commit resources into a hostile takeover.

Apexi Industries - Expanded on the science camp, this corporation is a science driven company looking to gain technology found from alien worlds with no moral compass. Their entire philosophy is profit driven with no compassion for humans or creatures and controls trade throughout the universe. Any merchant has to purchase rights through them to do business, otherwise they resort to extortion and murder to those that refuse to purchase said rights.

Mirage - A mercenary organization hired to perform security details and resources extend to a fully armed army with superior training to match any country or planetary defense force. Famous for Operation Seism where they took over the planet Viyria forming the first planet controlled by a military force with no government. "Up close it's the dull hum of heavy cruisers and destroyers which overpowers all other sounds. The sky filled with dropships of man and machine can be heard only faintly and the complaints of the soldiers are all but drowned out completely.
Nobody speaks a word to each other, whether it's because of fear, focus or something else is uncertain, but there's too much noise to talk anyway. The entire army is as one. A single collective mind with a single goal ahead of them: Annihilate the planetary army and overturn the current government."

The Caelestis Dominion - A completely separate government who follows closely to totalitarian ideals. A propaganda war machine that controls multiple planets and those that don't follow their ideas are sentenced to forced rehabilitation or charged with treason. A government stained with multiple genocides, whos only mission is to control the entire universe under their one leader Lucas Drach.

What I specifically don't like is the political undertones in such a system. If the game fails to appropriately express political nuance it will instead just look like an attempt at propaganda and will turn away large sections of audience.

I do know this to be a very real phenomenon, I'm highly aversed to games which fail to express true nuance in its in game politics. This means that what I don't like to see is a faction which is evil for evil's sake, this does not accurately reflect reality. Evil comes out of necessity, to have someone simply be evil for evil's sake is lazy and unrealistic.

This perspective leads me to the following criticisms:Apexi Industries: Why would a human run science organisation suddenly abandon the concept of morality for the sake of corporate greed? They sound like a mafia, except even the mafia are not purely evil. They need redeeming qualities, otherwise they're not developed well enough.

Mirage: "Mirage" is a name for an underground organisation of assassins or political string pullers, not for a mercenary warrior sect. They'd probably be best as a revolting military force who took over a small but significant sector from the Caelestis Dominion and have bunkered down hard, beginning to draw conscripts and mercenaries from the human populations of whatever sector they took over. This may be somewhat similar to the Farsight Enclaves from WH40k, with the great military mind leading his people away from forced indoctrination. Furthering this, having Apexi secretly supply them arms (for profit, as you seem eager to express the evils of business) would serve to justify the war between Apexi and Caelestis.

The Caelestis Dominion: Again, senseless evil with no redeeming qualities. I'd say this needs to be abandoned if no lore can be created which can explain *why* they are resorting to this evil, which adaquately expresses just how they were *forced* into doing this.
If we draw parallels to the USSR, they began committing evils because their revolution created a failed system, it was declining, and so to hold on to power they got steadily more destructive until the consesus of the people (most workers and business owners, some government officials, most of the military) simply deleted the system overnight on December 25 1991.
If we draw parallels to Nazi Germany, then where is the patriotic music? The anthems? The military parades? The glorification of the soldier? The charismatic leader? This faction needs far more detail.

If Apexi is to be supplying arms to Caelestis, then Caelestis probably needs to be bloated and bureaucratic like the USSR, waning in power and failing in control. Perhaps the governing body saw that the only time that their empire did not have so much dissent and wrongthink was when they were in their wartime glory days, with their charismatic leader, their military parades, their grand anthems. And so, they signed a backdoor deal with Apexi to supply them with arms to fight a faux war, and then allowed the creation of "Mirage" (Which needs a better name) to fight this faux war against. Perhaps their oversight in this is in the sheer size and scope of this new military force, and its military efficiency which Caelestis in its heaving political overgrowth fails to counter.

What I'm trying to say is that they're not good unless they're realistic. One solid way to make them realistic is to look at our history for civilizations and organisations which have existed and basing them roughly and fairly upon those. After all, what is more realistic that reality itself? Either that or making a logical series of steps by which you can justify each faction against one another. I'll leave you with that, but there is just not enough here for me to express an opinion.

Inquisitive

Faction motivations would certainly be necessary for realism: the "why" a faction exists points to "what" they want or wish to achieve with both the preceding points constituent to "who" they recruit. Factions can come and go for any number of reasons inline with the story, as long as they (in my opinion), actually support the story. They could appear because of new situational developments like the introduction of new arch types (bosses) or hazards where those affected team up.

There are some awesome points made in this thread and considering PG direction and dedication at the development level: features like factions could and should be developed enriching the overall experience from the "mechanical" side as well as story and syndicate levels of gameplay. Based on pre-existing systems and logic concerning player development, syndicates and in-game on-the-fly recruiting options syndicates will eventually become a more active topic of discussion. Faction influence on gameplay could also establish re-play through story branching that might only be available to a specific group or alignment (good, neutral or evil) enticing players to return for extended play opportunities exploring alternate story lines.

It would make PG highly competitive, high profile, very diverse and offer players a deeper level of expression allowing them to take more personal stock in their player character roles and time spent with the title and others while in and out of game. There were titles that hit kind of close to the mark concerning syndicates and the system worked out fairly well (the game solicits space ninjas as an angle). In a new world like Avalon, with no real form of government or ethics body, temptation to cut out a niche with like minded individuals is far to great to ignore the birth or presence of syndication.

There could also be an "alliance" against syndicates working toward a unity precept as governance; the alliance could fall under fire as being another syndicate itself creating more story line branching opportunities and would more than likely occur in the "real world" bringing realism to PG with its inclusion. Many other titles that effectively incorporated syndication have done so in a simplified manner offering content for foundation well, but without serious ramification against player characters or impact on story line direction and this is where PG could take the concepts of "Syndicates" to the next level.

Syndicates would be subject to alignment based on general public, third party syndicate and security force perceptions and reap rewards in accordance with their standing with each external entity. There is much opportunity for logical expansion here, but if its managed correctly.